Rebel Frank Field leads calls for curbs on migrants

The leading Labour rebel, Frank Field, has teamed up with senior Tories to demand a cap on the number of immigrants settling in Britain.

In a move that will alarm Downing Street, Field will tomorrow become the first prominent Labour figure to tackle Gordon Brown openly over the explosive issue of immigration.

A former welfare minister under Tony Blair, Field will join Nicholas Soames, the Tory MP, to call for a huge reduction in the numbers of non-European Union workers who settle permanently in Britain. Soames, a former minister under John Major, is a hate figure among many Labour MPs.

Together with the pressure group Migrationwatch, Field and his allies will launch the first cross-party parliamentary immigration group. The move has tacit support from at least one government minister.

Field aims to push Brown to end Britain’s open door immigration policy, which he says is costing British jobs and is deeply unpopular with voters.

The Labour maverick led the backbench rebellion over Brown’s controversial abolition of the 10p tax rate. His latest intervention will be seen by Downing Street as likely to cause division within Labour ranks by challenging Brown on a key area of Labour policy. Until now the idea of imposing any kind of immigration quota has been taboo in Labour circles.

Field believes that unchecked immigration is placing an intolerable burden on schools, transport, the health service and the environment. He will cite figures showing that the rise in immigration means that Britain will need to build seven new cities the size of Birmingham by 2031.

A forecast by the European commission predicts that Britain’s population will rise from 60.9m today to 77m within 50 years, making it Europe’s most populous country.

In 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, an estimated 591,000 people arrived in the UK. About 400,000 left the country, leaving net immigration at 191,000.

Field will call on Brown to balance the number of those coming to settle in Britain with those emigrating.

He will propose that all but a tiny minority of the skilled foreigners from outside the EU coming to work here on new four-year work permits should leave as soon as their permits expire. Under the present system, most stay on and are allowed to settle permanently.

“The group believe that this should be the central aim of immigration policy. Only a small number would be allowed to settle and that number would be capped,” said a source close to Field.

Yesterday one government minister said he privately supported the move. “We absolutely have to have a cap, otherwise how can you control it? Any sensible person will say that predictions that the population will grow to nearly 80m is unsustainable,” he said.

“If you don’t have a cap on those who stay after their work permits expire, you can’t control the long-term trend.”

Field has spoken about the need to control immigration from eastern Europe. But this is the first time that any Labour figure has called for a quota on migrants coming to settle.

Ministers have consistently dismissed Tory calls for a quota, saying it would make little difference as most migrants come from the EU and have a legal right to stay. But that view is challenged by Migrationwatch, which has found that immigration from the EU will soon balance out. The pressure of immigration in future will come from non-EU countries, including those in Africa and Asia.

Unofficial estimates suggest that as many as 100,000 foreigners a year who come to Britain under work permit schemes decide to flout immigration rules and stay on when their permits expire.

The Home Office has recently introduced an Australian points-based system designed to restrict the number of non-EU migrants entering under the work permit scheme to those who have proper qualifications and experience. But the Tories — and Field — believe that the scheme is still an open door because it does not set an annual limit on numbers.

David Cameron, the Conservative party leader, said last year that he wanted to reduce “substantially” the number of non-EU immigrants. He has promised to announce a specific limit in the party’s next election manifesto.

Field will emphasise that he does not want a limit on the numbers of new migrants per se. Instead he plans to target the more important issue of placing a cap on those who settle here permanently.

Field’s friends say his move is designed to reflect genuine concern among working-class people in his Birkenhead constituency. Last December the MP revealed new figures which showed that most new jobs were going to migrants. The figures made a mockery of Brown’s declaration that he wanted “British jobs for British workers”.

The Statistics Commission said that 1.4m workers born abroad had taken jobs in Britain since 1997 — up to 81% of the 1.7m new jobs.

The new group believes it has backing from business leaders such as the Institute of Directors and the CBI. Field expects to receive substantial public support. Previous opinion polls show about half of existing migrants felt there should be curbs on future immigrants coming to Britain.

A Home Office spokesperson last night said: "Migration is good for employment and good for the economy - new migrants contributed £6 billion to the UK economy in 2006 alone.

"The tough Australian-style points system means only those Britain needs and no more can come here and it's flexible - allowing us to raise or lower the bar according to the needs of business and the country as a whole. When setting the pass mark, we will listen to the advice of the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent panel of economists.

"All migrants must speak English and obey the law if they want to gain citizenship.”
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4692865.ece

Comment – September 7, 2008

Ignore the oft-repeated line about immigration being “good for employment and for the economy”: these are standard clichés to make you feel good about an issue that is obviously straining employment opportunities and health and social services.

Also beware the insinuation that opposition to unrestricted immigration is somehow “racist”. I come from a family of mixed race immigrants and they will openly acknowledge the adverse effects of unrestricted immigration.

In fact the issue of “race” is a side issue, which is used to confuse and distract attention from the real question. Which is, why has unrestricted immigration been allowed and even encouraged?

The answer, I believe, has an esoteric dimension connected with events that are fast approaching. The elite know what is going to happen and are working to exploit their foreknowledge while the broad masses, particularly ordinary Britons, remain completely in the dark.

It can be summed up in three words: MASS HUMAN SACRIFICE.

It has happened before in other civilisations that were nearing their end such as the ancient Druids or Aztecs. Only today most ordinary people would deem human sacrifice as completely unacceptable.

Not the elite though. Only they cannot conduct human sacrifice openly, as did the Aztecs and the Druids. So instead they have to use guile and deceit and fine talk about the “economic benefits” of immigration.

In reality such rhetoric conceals a dark duplicity, just as the ancient priests once spoke of ensuring next years harvest by propitiating the Gods of fertility, our learned “experts” – their modern-day equivalent – now speak of the “economic benefits”.

So although the elite cannot openly sacrifice people, they can work to secretly exploit their foreknowledge. They know that at the end of 2012 a geophysical upheaval will leave large parts of southern and central England completely inundated. So they are now packing as many people into these areas as possible: where millions, possibly tens of millions will die overnight.

These areas will effectively become killing fields. Used to sacrifice millions lured there by ignorance or greed and offered to darker deities for the benefit of the elite.

The signs are already there. Seasonal flooding is becoming a regular event in large parts of England and Wales. Michel Nostradamus once wrote of the Isle of Scotland, as if England were already beneath the waves; while Mother Shipton, the fabled soothsayer, wrote the following lines unearthed by a Nexus reader in the Mitchell Library in Sidney, Australia.

When pictures seem alive with movement free
When boats like fishes swim beneath the sea...

The tides will rise beyond their ken
To bite away the shores, and then
The mountains will begin to roar
And earthquakes split the plain to shore.

And flooding waters, rushing in
Will flood the lands with such a din
That mankind cowers in muddy fen
And snarls about his fellow men...

Which is not to say all of England will be inundated. Some areas of northern England will be relatively safe but even here the population are being encouraged to migrate further south, for better employment opportunities.

In effect, a variety of so-called "experts" are being used to lure sheeple into what will become the killing fields of southern England by claiming its northernmost cities are "doomed".

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Last updated 10/09/2008

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